If you're in the Northeast this weekend, I hope you're staying warm and cooking up one of our Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meal kits. Remember, there's no need to shop for specific ingredients - everything is delivered right to your door.
Yesterday was also very cold here at my Bedford, New York farm - temperatures were in the low 20s with wind chills in the single digits. For lunch, my housekeeper, Elvira Rojas, cooked one of the meals I selected from this week's menu - Chicken Pad Thai with Peppers, Peanuts & Lime. It was excellent and just the perfect size for four. Plus, just as promised on the recipe card, the entire dish was done in less than 40-minutes. Our delivery meal service features so many inspiring recipes and cooking ideas, and you can customize the menu and choose the recipes that best fit your busy lifestyle. To order your Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon meal kits, please go to the web site.
Enjoy these photos.
The first thing we do is take out all the ingredients from our Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon box and place them on the counter where everything is easy to see. All these ingredients are fresh and pre-portioned, so there is no waste. Each meal comes with a large recipe card, which lists the ingredients and each of the six steps plus large photos to help show each stage of the process.
Elvira heats a tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over high and drops in the chicken to cook through.
She stirs occasionally while it cooks for about four to five minutes.
Pad Thai is made with dried rice noodles that are cut thick and flat. They can be found in any Asian specialty store or Asian section of the grocery.
The noodles are cooked in a medium pot of salted boiling water for about six to eight minutes until al-dente.
She also chops the garlic and all the other vegetables.
Here is the chicken almost cooked – always make sure poultry is cooked through. To be sure, one can poke the chicken to see if the juices run clear. If they do, it’s done.
Once the chicken is cooked, Elvira transfers it to a separate bowl.
Next, the sauce is prepared. Elvira whisks together the fish sauce, sweet & sour sauce, and two tablespoons sugar.
Then she adds two tablespoons lime juice into the sauce.
In the same skillet, Elvira adds the peppers, shallots, and scallion whites. She cooks everything until they are tender and then removes them from the skillet and adds to the same bowl as the chicken.
Once the noodles are done, they are drained and rinsed under cold water and tossed with two teaspoons oil to prevent sticking.
Elvira adds the garlic, noodles and sauce to the skillet stirring and tossing often until the noodles start to absorb the sauce. This takes about two to four minutes.
Next, the noodles are pushed to one side and the eggs are added to the empty space.
Once the eggs are broken, cooked and stirred in with the noodles, Elvira adds the chicken and vegetables.
Then she adds the peanuts, scallion dark greens and seasons with salt and pepper to taste. It’s that easy.
After just a few minutes, our Chicken Pad Thai with Peppers, Peanuts & Lime looks great just like the photo. Serve with a lime wedges on the side and it’s ready – a delicious meal on a very cold winter day. Be sure to visit Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon today and sign up!
Be sure to tune in to my latest podcast on the iHeart media app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're releasing another interesting and fun episode today - this one with three longtime devotees of the Martha Stewart brand.
Many of you who follow this blog have also read my magazines, watched my television shows, and purchased my products. Over the years, I've worked hard to build and nurture an effective brand that not only provides how-to content, but also imparts interesting information that teaches, delights, and inspires. Andrew Ritchie, Bernie Wong, and Dennis Landon have not only supported me and the brand, but have also shared their experiences and all they've learned with others. Andrew is the creator of the “Martha Moments” blog and online community. Bernie and Dennis post their gardening, baking, and entertaining projects through Instagram @BernieWongGreen. And all three continue to heed one of my own favorite sayings - "learn something new every day."
Enjoy these photos and remember to listen to today's podcast.
Andrew designed and founded his “Martha Moments” blog in 2006 as a content archive written for fans and collectors of the Martha Stewart brand. It was a big hit and continues to delight readers 17 years later.
I invited Andrew to talk about his blog on my television show in 2010. Here’s a photo of us on set. I taught him how to make yarn cards. Andrew says it was his “first big Martha Moment!”
Andrew, Bernie, and Dennis first met through “Martha Moments” – listen to their stories on my podcast. They then traveled from their home states to attend my “Great American Tag Sale” last year. Here they are on the shuttle van.
I met Bernie and Dennis at the tag sale. Here is a photo of the three of us. If you also came to my tag sale, you may have seen them too – in their matching “Martha green” overalls.
All three of them got a ton of great items from the sale.
Andrew purchased this rolling pin from the tag sale and asked me to sign it for him.
Andrew also got a Martha by Mail squirrel and acorn caramel glass dish, which he long wanted and was so excited to find. Martha by Mail was our mail order catalog. It was loved by so many.
Dennis and Bernie bought these Martha by Mail spice racks.
Bernie and Dennis drove all their tag sale finds home in a trailer – they love green.
They are avid gardeners. Here’s their favorite watering can and cast iron twine dispenser – also bought at the tag sale.
And green enamel flower holders from the tag sale with flowers from their garden.
Here’s Andrew’s new wicker plant stand that I used to display potted plants in my Tenant House here at Bedford. Now it’s home to a Boston fern in Andrew’s dining room in Ottawa, Canada.
Weeks later, Dennis and Bernie hosted a viewing party to watch the Great American Tag Sale show. Here they are serving up treats on a Martha by Mail tray.
In this photo, their table is set for lunch with a fellow “Martha Moments” friend. Many of their entertaining and table setting ideas were inspired by my shows and the stories in our magazines.
They developed a love for brown transferware and have their own collection.
Bernie and Dennis share my love for chickens and appreciate the delicious eggs their hens produce every day.
And if you follow Bernie on Instagram @BernieWongGreen, you know he loves to bake and often uses these tried and true cookie cutters.
In this photo, Bernie and Dennis look through previous issues of my magazine “Living” and read through my books. It’s nice to see how much our hard work has taught and inspired readers and viewers over the years. Listen to my podcast with Andrew, Bernie and Dennis to hear how they all met, how two of these three fell in love and married, what tips and “Good Things” they value most, and so much more.
Happy Birthday, Andy Yu! Some of the best gatherings are those spent with friends celebrating special occasions.
Over the weekend, I attended a birthday luncheon for designer Andy Yu. Chef and restaurateur, David Burke, prepared a wonderful menu for 10. It included "clothesline" bacon and pastrami salmon, popovers, dressed oysters, lobster dumplings, burrata salad, tuna and salmon tartare, halibut t-bone, and several delectable desserts. I also made a delicious lemon and Armagnac pound cake for the party. It was a wonderful feast and a most delightful celebration.
Enjoy these photos.
Here I am with Chef David Burke and the guest of honor, Andy Yu. The party was held at Andy’s home, not far from my Bedford, New York farm. Andy designed his festive jacket.
There were lots of red decorations in observance of the Chinese New Year, which started less than a week earlier on January 22nd. This year is the Year of the Rabbit. Red is the color of good fortune.
There was a menu at each place setting – everything listed looked delicious.
… And each guest received several gifts, including this Reinstein Ross freshwater pearl.
We started with “clothesline” bacon served with black pepper maple glaze, pickle, and lemon.
There was also a pastrami salmon “clothesline” served with cornbread.
David also made giant popovers – served warm to the touch…
… with sweet butter.
These are dressed oysters – East Coast oysters with baby shrimp, ginger, and pickled vegetables, served on a brick of pink Himalayan salt.
We also enjoyed burrata salad as the appetizer with apples, acorn squash, kale, with a miso cider vinaigrette dressing. If you’ve never had burrata cheese, it is an Italian cow’s milk cheese made from mozzarella and cream formed into a thin pouch and then filled with soft, stringy curd and cream called stracciatella.
This is tuna and salmon tartare – with avocado, shaved vegetable salad, and gaufrettes – small crispy, potato wafers cut like waffles.
The main course was halibut t-bone with artichoke purée, tiny ratatouille vinaigrette, and kalamata olives.
Here is a lovely photo of my friend, Dominique Bluhdorn, and Andy.
For dessert, we enjoyed an Original David Burke Cake-top Tree with bubble gum whipped cream and cotton candy.
Also on the menu – Tin Can Cake with chocolate sauce, Heath Bar crunch, caramel anglaise, vanilla gelato, and whipped cream. It was devoured.
I made this cake earlier in the morning. It is a dense pound cake scented with lemon and Armagnac – a distinctive brandy produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony in southwest France. I also covered it with a sugar-butter Armagnac glaze.
Another guest, Amy Wayne, brought these fun cookies shaped like Chinese New Year lanterns. Amy found the cookie cutter and had the cookies made locally at Bedford Village Bakery.
Andy and Amy stopped for this snapshot. The jacket Amy is wearing was also a gift to Andy. She embellished a denim jacket with a flower on the front…
… And “It Had to be Yu” decals on the back – a take on the old classic song, “It Had to Be You” composed by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Gus Kahn in 1924. It fits Andy perfectly.
It was a wonderful luncheon on a mild and pleasant winter’s day. In this photo, Andy is joined by Nicole Russo Steinthal, Andy’s husband Dr. Evan Goldstein, Brooke Vogell, Angelina Lipman, myself, Dominique, Anni de Saint Phalle, and Melissa Tolin. Thanks for inviting me to the party, Andy!